We Aussies are bombarded daily with BUY AUSTRALIAN MADE adverts. You get them on the Television, in Newspapers, in the Stores and see it written on Billboards – might have even seen bumper stickers with it emblazoned on as well.

Celebrities like Dick Smith have websites dedicated to explaining what we have….. that is Australian made, and what we import and sell to consumers. He encourages us to buy Australian Made products, to save jobs. I think I have even heard Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman) spouting the Buy Australian Made speak! Wonder if he intends getting rid of all the ‘other’ stuff in the stores bearing the ‘made in’ – other countries lables? Somehow I doubt it!

According to theAustralian Made Australian Grown website: Our farmers, manufacturers, fishermen and processors make some of the best products in the world and by buying their goods you’re not only supporting local jobs and our economy, but also getting great products and produce.

Australian products and produce have been manufactured or grown locally to meet our high Australian standards. They come with warranties and should you need spare parts or service, the supplier is just a phone call away.

That means you can have confidence in the quality and know that whatever you are buying hasn’t travelled around the world before it reaches your home.

It makes sense to buy things that have been made right here in Australia.

That’s all well and good, so long as you are not the Government of Australia – then you can spend billions of taxpayers dollars – without even asking if it is OK to do so, on having your Country’s Defences built overseas.

HMAS Canberra and the HMAS Adelaide are amphibious assault ships being built by a Spanish ship-building company, and they are not expected to be in service for three years.

Now some of you will argue that is is OK to get Spain to build our Navy because we do not have the facilities here in Australia to do so. My question to you would be why is this so? In years past, we built our own ships, so why not now? Why is it that we outsource just about everything we can buy? Could this have anything to do with the fact that some of the countries we now get our manufacturing done it, have lower standards and pay less in wages? Could it simply boil down to follow the almighty dollar? I doubt it has much to do with the fact we, here in Australia do not have the expertiese to do this manufacturing ourselves.

Have we priced ourselves out of the market? Has greed possibly been a reason? Greed works in many ways of course. Greed from Workers wanting higher wages and better working conditions. Greed from Manufacturers, wanting to make a higher profit for the shareholders. Greed from the Government wanting to raise taxes higher.

Whatever the underlying reason, it seems we now have to rely on foreigners to build the very ships our Country may require to defend and protect us from outside foreign invasion – should the need arise. Something does not seem quite right in all of this.